Indore: A study shows that almost 65 per cent men aged 45 years and above suffer from prostate problems but still most of the patients remain ‘unseen’.
Addressing a webinar organized to observe prostate awareness month, urologist Dr Sushil Bhatia said, “Most of the patients suffering from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients ‘normalize’ their symptoms, as an inevitable consequence of aging often quoting examples of their family members, relatives and acquaintances or attribute it solely to external factors like cold weather and their drinking too much water. They continue to suffer symptoms in silence and develop various strategies to cope with them until they markedly worsen, and complications develop and finally see a doctor”.
He said that such patients always look-out for washrooms wherever they go – a behavior called toilet mapping.
“If untreated, other problems like recurrent acute urinary retention (sudden painful inability to pass urine), recurrent urinary infections, formation of stones and even damage to and failure of both kidneys can soon set in. These not only impose an additional morbidity on the patient but also mean additional cost burden of surgery on the patient and his family. In many cases, the problem cannot be remedied by surgery and the patient may need to be put on lifelong catheterization or even dialysis,” the doctor said. Awareness about the disease and not hiding the problem is the only solution to get early diagnoses and treatment of the disease.
